Holder for a cake of soap



March 1958 R. w. NORDLOF ETAL 2,825,177

HOLDER FOR A CAKE OF SOAP Filed March 5, 1955 V EN TORS.

United States i HOLDER FOR A CAKE OF SOAP Ragnar W. Nordlof, Park Ridge, and Leif N. Nordlie, Lincolnwood, Ill.

This inventionrelates to a holder for a cake of soap. jgflQnegofthe, objects of this invention is to provide a holder for supporting a cake of soap in a suspended position so that it will dry during non-use and will not become soggy r messy as is common with cakes of soap placed in trays or the like.

Another object is to provide a holder attached to a wall surface which has magnetic means for magnetically attracting a gripper on the cake of soap to thereby support a cake of soap in a suspended position.

Another object is to provide a holder having magnetic means supported therein in such a manner that the magnetic means floats and adjusts itself in relation to the gripper on the cake of soap so that a flush and positive contact is established which produces the maximum magnetic pull.

Another object is to provide a holder of the foregoing characteristics which eliminates the use of' costly conventional U-shaped magnetic elements and utilizes an inexpensive magnetic bar and separate pole pieces, movable relative to the magnetic bar which afford a four point contact with the gripper surface on the cake of soap. All resulting in a product which can be inexpensively produced and which has greater magnetic attraction.

Other objects will become apparent as this description progresses.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the soap holder with a cake of soap.

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of the holder.

Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view of the holder.

Fig. 4 is a central longitudinal view taken on lines 44 of Fig. 2 and showing a cake of soap supported thereby.

Fig. 5 is a cross sectional viewtaken on lines 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the magnetic bar and the pole members.

The holder generally indicated at 10 comprises a base 12 and a forwardly extending body portion 14 which may be integrally formed and made of a suitable non-magnetic material such as a thermoplastic material or the like. The forwardly extending body portion is substantially of shell form being hollow and is provided with a rectangular shaped compartment 16 open at the bottom. The compartment 16 is spaced from the front 18 of the body portion and is formed of a pair of side walls 20 and 22 and end walls 24 and 26. The area adjacent the end walls 24 and 26 is recessed and is each provided with a downwardly extending pin 28 and 30 which pins are of reduced diameter at the extremities thereof as at 28 and 30' to define shoulders 31 and 32. The shoulders are on the same horizontal plane as the lower ends of the end walls and the reduced portions 28' and 30 of the pins extend downwardly therefrom.

The magnetic elements are contained within the compartment 16 and are adapted to float within said compartment so that the pole pieces make positive contact 1. 2,825,177. Patented Marwith the gripper member on the cake of soap. The magnetic elements comprises a horizontally positioned permanent magnetic bar 34 and two pole pieces 36 and 38 which are positioned adjacent the ends of the magnetic bar and are magnetically held thereby. The permanent magnetic bar 34 may be made of any suitable material, but is preferably made of a material known as Alnicd which provides a magnet with a relatively large magnetic fieldand strong magnetic force in proportion to its side.

The pole pieces 36 and 38 are made preferably of steel and are each recessed at their lower ends as at 40 and 42 to provide a pair of legs 36 and 38' respectively for each of the pole pieces, thus providing 4 magnetic contacts. A closure plate 44 closes the open end of the compartment 16 and said plate has a pair of spaced openings which receive the extremities 28' and 30' of the pins and to which same are secured by heating the pins and pressing them flush with the closure plate for permanent securement. The closure plate 44 has additionally 4 spaced openings 46 to accommodate the 4 legs 36' and 38' of the pole pieces which extend therethrough and which extend below the closure plate 44. The spaced openings 46 are large enough to permit free play of the legsof the pole pieces. The closure plate 44 has a central pin 48 extending upwardly therefrom which is spaced from the magnetic bar 34. The horizontal portions 40' and 42 of the recesses 40 and 42 of the pole pieces rest on the closure plate with the legs 36 and 38 extending below the plate. The pole pieces are free to move relative to the plate 44 and also may move slightly vertically with respect to the horizontally positioned magnetic bar 34. The central pin 48 limits the downward movement of the magnetic bar 34. This construction permits the magnetic bar 34 and pole pieces 36 and 38 to float in the compartment 16 so as to adjust itself so that when the gripper member on the cake of soap is positioned for magnetic attraction, at flush and positive contact is made between the gripper member and the 4 legs of the pole pieces. The whole surface of each of the legs makes a flush contact with the surface of the gripper member which produces a magnetic pull greater than would be produced if no flush contact were made.

The gripper member indicated at 50 comprises a disc having a circumferential flange to form an inverted cup and same is made of any suitable non-resisting material capable of being magnetically activated such as stainless steel. The gripper 50 is inserted in a cake of soap S and the soap will be firmly attached thereto by the vacuum grip produced by the inverted cup.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 4 the cake of soap S is held in a suspended position through the magnetic attraction between the legs of the pole pieces and the gripper 50. The soap is thus free from any contact with any surface and will dry rapidly. As the soap is used and reduced in size the gripper will remain firmly attached to the cake of soap until it is reduced to its minimum size after which the gripper 50 may be removed and placed on another cake of soap. 7

The base 12 may be provided with fastening elements 52 by which it is secured to a vertical wall support or the base 12 may be provided with a suitable adhesive by which it is adhesively secured to a wall support.

It will be understood that various changes and modifications may be made from the foregoing without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a device for magnetically supporting a cake of soap, said device comprising a support adapted to be mounted on a supporting surface, said support having a chamber, a magnetic bar horizontally positioned in said chamber, a pair of separate pole members positioned in said chamber, one of each of said pole members positioncd adjacent an. end of said bar and connected to said bar only by magnetic attraction and vertically movable with respect to said magnetic bar, a closure for said chamber, said closure having openings through which the lower portion of said pole members extend to magneti' cally hold the soap to be supported.

2. In a device for magnetically supporting an object, said device comprising a support adapted to be mounted on a supporting surface, said support having a chamber, a magnetic bar horizontally positioned in said chamber, a pair of separate pole members positioned in said chamber, one of each of said pole members positioned adjacent an end of said bar and connected to said bar only by magnetic attraction and each tree for movement with respect to said magnetic bar, each of said pole members having a pair of legs, a closure for said chamber, said closure having openings through which said legs extend to magnetically support an object.

3. In a device for magnetically supporting an object, said device comprising a support adapted to be mounted on a supporting surface, said support having a chamher open at the bottom, a closure for said bottom opening, said closure having a vertical pin extending into said chamber, a magnetic bar horizontally positioned in said chamber, said pin limitingthe downward movement of said bar, a pair of separate vertically positioned pole members, one of each of said pole members positioned adjacent an end of said bar and connected to said bar only by magnetic attraction and free to move with re spect to said bar, each of said pole members having a pair of legs extending through said closure to receive the object to be supported in a suspended position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,597,925 Edger May 27, 1952 2,648,127 Nelson Aug. 11, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 109,655 Sweden Feb. 1, 1944 510,825 Belgium May 15, 1952 905,432 Netherlands Mar. 4, 1954 

